Speakers

Jeanne Marie Gescher

Jeanne-Marie Gescher is regarded as one of the world's leading advisors on China. A barrister who became interested in the idea of what development might mean in China and taught Chinese law and development at SOAS in the late 1980s. She went to live in Beijing in 1989. Founder of one of the earliest advisory firms, honorary legal advisor to successive British ambassadors to the PRC, pro-bono lawyer for those in need, twice elected chair of the British Chamber of Commerce in China, convenor of dialogues, creator of an independent virtual think tank, she has lived and worked in China for over 25 years. Some years ago, she set out to understand how China became the state that it is today: the result is Becoming China, the Story Behind the State (Bloomsbury, 2017).